Thursday, May 25, 2017

Admittedly I don't have many "BEFORE" photos on this project - because it began as a garage. A dark, spider-infested garage....not really picture worthy. But, I do have some mid-process photos that will get the point across.

Enjoy!

BEFORE:

When it came time to start demo, we put the roll-up door/opener up on craigslist for free and someone came and dismantled the entire thing and hauled it away! Good deal all around.

AFTER:

Yes, this is actually the same room!

We framed out the window and front door under the original header in the garage door opening to minimize the labor/cost.

BEFORE:

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Now, this was after we tore through 60 years of siding, insulation, paneling, and wallpaper, but you get the idea.

BTW: those cinderblocks were the actual "stairs" from the garage in to the house. Classy, right?

AFTER:

Goodbye cinderblock steps - hello, beautiful!

Mr. Steady custom built the shelving for my MIL's book collection and military collectibles.

BEFORE:

Please understand that photography is NOT Mr. Steady's strength, but as you can see, I had my hands full with our youngest (who is definitely a handful!). At any rate, I'm glad he at least got the shot of this angle...so you can truly appreciate this:

AFTER:

Although, we ran out of room in the kitchen area, my MIL's spice cupboard (custom built by Mr. Steady with the pieces of her father's hutch that was destroyed in the great moving truck catastrophe) found a home just outside the kitchen doorway.

We continued the kitchen flooring on to the bottom step and did carpet tiles in the living room - right on the concrete slab! We were on a very tight budget (like highschool jeans TIGHT). Carpet tiles were a bit of a gamble, but they have been great. They were SO EASY to install (even our Curious Cowgirl helped) and we just made it through a TN winter without complaint.

BEFORE:

This is also a mid-process shot. Working with a garage slab foundation, we faced some logistical issues.

AFTER:

We turned that lemon in to lemonade by only building out the bottom half of the wall to match the foundation, and left an inset shelf for display -a great place to show off my In-laws' favorite memories.

So....what do you think? Thoughts, comments, questions? Send them our way!! More reveal posts coming soon! From our home to yours, Katie

As we face the VERY LAST (wishful thinking?) major construction project on our century old farmhouse, I have allowed myself the sweet indulgence to dream again.

Dream of painted walls, room furnishings, and framed art!

I LOVE filling frames.

I have always had my walls filled with framed photos, scriptures, decorative prints, and, inspiring quotes. It has been absolute heartache waiting for this remodel to end, staring at bare drywall, and peeking at the stacks of frames I long to fill.

I am painfully ready (even though the house is not quite there).

So, I jumped in to the next best thing: Creating frame fillers!

Here are few of the latest designs:

These designs are PRINTABLE and available exclusively in our Etsy Shop for only $4.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

I was pacing myself with posts of the building process, but there's always time to go back and fill those in. I'm ready to do a REVEAL (and a little showing off). I decided to start with the kitchen, since it was probably the most work.

It began as a creepy, carpeted mess from the 1980s.

BEFORE:

Well, this is what we had to work with: Mustard paint and mauve carpet. An outdated globe-less ceiling fan mounted to cardboard ceiling tiles (no joke!) was really a special focal point, but not to be outdone by the tiny, off center (non-operational) window.

AFTER:

I know, right?

BEFORE:

The room lead in to a room (which lead in to another room) with no hallway. A temperamental pocket door from the 1960s parted the two - sometimes.

We built a pantry in to the back of the kitchen wall and created a "hallway" to allow for the bedroom (straight ahead) and bathroom (to the right beyond the fridge) doors.

BEFORE:

An awkward exterior door leading straight from the bedroom to the garage was not only unsafe (as the steps were just stacked cinderblocks), but really kinda' bizarre.

AFTER:

We opened up the doorway and created (safe) steps down in to the former garage (new living room). Please excuse the cardboard dishwasher - we were still waiting for the arrival of the last appliance when this picture was taken.

BEFORE:

This tiny "walk-in" closet with linoleum flooring and a collapsing ceiling was to the left of the garage door and hardly in working condition.

AFTER:

We turned the closet in to a laundry nook, intending on hiding the appliances behind a retractable curtain. But, my mother-in-law is so proud of her shiny new washer & dryer, she likes them on display. The dryer is elevated on a platform containing the ducting for the air intake vent - a carefully designed layout accommodation.

Ps. The blue pin-up board on the left is covering the PEX Manifold access box. Notice the recessed valve boxes in the back.

BEFORE:

To be fair, this picture was taken after a bit of demo was underway. But, you get the idea.

AFTER:

We made an opening on the back wall which really opened up the room. Using the placement of the original window, we created a practical kitchen layout (with the help of our trusty Sweet Home program) with room for storage, prep space, and appliances. And we painted the cupboards my MIL's favorite blue to match her china.

Here are a few more angles of the new kitchen:

From the kitchen window: bathroom door on the left, perfectly built refrigerator nook in the center, and new laundry station on the right.

We decided against building a custom pantry when we started running out of time. We bit the bullet and purchased a System Build pantry. It was over our budget, but for sanity's sake it was a cinch to assemble and slid right in to place. Made me think of my Grandfather's favorite saying: "Pound it in and paint it to match".

Still haven't found an appropriate way to hide the ugly control panel door - any ideas/suggestions?

Here is a look at the staircase Mr. Steady built that steps up in to the new kitchen. What an improvement! We were getting some killer calves and quads from climbing those cinderblock steps, but we were glad to see them go.

Well, that was the BIG KITCHEN REVEAL. We are so proud to know my in-laws are living in such a beautiful (safe, updated, comfortable) space - that we built with our own two hands. That kind of confidence is priceless.

So....what do you think? Thoughts, comments, questions? Send them our way!!
More reveal posts coming soon!
From our home to yours,
Katie

In the last 2 years our family has forged through 4 MASSIVE and necessary renovation projects (like health hazard necessary), a really tough pregnancy, and A LOT of transition. During this time of survival, we mustered the strength, courage, and stamina to fill Etsy orders as they came in and keep the business afloat.

We very recently had the time (energy, resources, and drive) to really focus on growing the business. You can read a little about that journey here.

This blog is a means of expression for me. A way to reach out of this wild life and share what we've experienced, lament on the lessons learns, and boast of the progress made.

"Monetizing" my blog (using it to earn income), was a simple transition for me. I love writing and am grateful for the time to jump back in. When I found out I could help our family business move forward while sharing our story through my posts, it was like a win-win for us.

So, why Amazon Affiliates?

Well, we love Amazon! We purchase our packing supplies, our wood finishing products, and lots of other tools of the trade through them!

In fact, when we first moved to the farm, my husband proposed, "for every project I do, I get to buy a new tool"....I nodded in jest. But, it turned out to be no laughing matter. We have scouted out, researched, purchased, and worn out more tools in the last two years than I even knew existed. During the In-Law Apartment build we had to acquire tools for plumbing, framing, electrical, trim work, and everything in between.

Each purchase was made after careful research and comparison. We benefited from the product reviews and recommendations on DIY blogs and used their affiliate links confidently. And now we want to be a contributing party, to share our stories of triumph, to inspire confidence to face a new project, and to offer direct links to the products discussed for research and review.

What does that mean for you?

The resources and links provided in our blog are to help you explore your options, narrow your search, and gain confidence in your tool selection for your DIY projects. We only include endorsements from products we feel will be a blessing to you and you are under no obligation to purchase them. But, if you do decide they will work for you, using our links to make your purchases (as we try to do for other bloggers) will add pennies to our savings jar so we can keep DIYing here on Rehoboth Farm.

We thank you for supporting our small business by using our affiliate links.

Some people have a finer appreciation for sculpture, impressionist paintings, theatrical works, literary masterpieces, and the like. They honor the writer, the painter, the musician, the potter, the poet for their creativity, courage, cleverness, or originality.
My husband enjoys a good song, sonnet, or sculpture with the best of them, but he doesn't subscribe to any overzealous adoration of any particular work of art....

Except this:

He is mesmerized by the beauty in a PEX schematic. If he could meet the guy/gal who installed this PEX manifold and shake his/her hand, I'm pretty sure he would swoon like a school girl. And, in a way, I can see it. There really is beauty in order.

*photos sourced from pex-manifold.com

It's visually impressive. But, what's the point? (that's what I said to him when he started his big "I think we need to do THIS PEX MANIFOLD for the apartment" speech). He explained that the manifold was essentially an electrical panel - for plumbing. Giving each water source it's own valve would allow us to isolate leaks, pressure issues, and resolve any problems down the road without compromising the entire house's water supply.

Okay, that sounds good, but is it necessary?

When you have a 3,000 square foot house that you are converting in to 2 homes, while 2 families are currently living in it - YES. THAT IS NECESSARY. Why do I feel it is NECESSARY?

Well, in case you missed our kitchen renovation adventure, we spent the first week in our new home with NO RUNNING WATER. And then several days with NO HOT WATER while our kitchen was being torn up and rebuilt. So.....the idea of being able to isolate plumbing projects during construction without sacrificing the comfort of everyone involved is, in my humble opinion, NECESSARY!

Enter....the PEX manifold:

For a DIY project it's really ideal. No PVC glue. No elbows, Ts, or brittle piping. No soldering copper fittings. Just a crimping tool and the valves. We purchased the recessed boxes for the valves so that the appliances could sit flush against the wall. Everything hooked together very simply. Even Our Curious Cowgirl and Our Sweet Songbird got to help:

No, really.
While Mr. Steady crawled under the house feeding red and blue tubing up through all of the pre-drilled holes, C.C. ran around fishing them out and pulling them to meet the box locations.

As far as project materials, it was a lot simpler than your typical pvc spread. The PEX tubing is flexible (within reason), so unless you have extreme turns (and have to use these), you can just snake it over, under, around, and through whatever obstacles you face - a big improvement from the angular process of cutting/gluing pvc or cutting/soldering copper at every turn. It also helps with water pressure because there are no breaks in the line.

Keep in mind, Mr. Steady is not a plumber. He had worked with PEX once before on a small DIY project back in Houston, but was otherwise inexperienced. But, in true Mr. Steady fashion, he researched, read, drooled over schematic pictures, measured and remeasured the layout on Sweet Home, and "learned the ropes" in theory for weeks before we started. And when it came time, he placed an order for the following items:

Also, new pipe cutters, extra fittings, braces and a few more particulars for our project. I think we were all in for around $500. Since Mr. Steady did all the labor himself, it was a heck of a deal. The PVC drain/waste lines seemed to cost a fortune by comparison. I was very impressed with how efficiently the whole thing came together.

And, the final product was a work of art all its own:

I mean, its no Rembrandt, but it's still a thing of beauty to us.

And after a day spent slithering under the house running tubing, Mr. Steady was glad to be able to finally resurface and get a look at his masterpiece.

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Rehoboth Farm does not share personal information with third parties nor do we store any information about your visit to this blog other than to analyze and optimize your content and reading experience through the use of cookies.You can turn off the use of cookies at anytime by changing your specific browser settings.We are not responsible for republished content from this blog on other blogs or websites without our permission.This privacy policy is subject to change without notice and was last updated on 11/8/2016 If you have any questions feel free to contact me directly here: mskatiesartstudio@gmail.com